Europe and Russia Studies

Immediately after the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, NATO members unanimously voted their support for the United States under Article V of the Washington Treaty. This unprecedented action, the first time such a vote has occurred in NATO's history, underscores the vitality of the Atlantic Alliance and its tremendous strategic value for its members.

As the United States responds to a changing global security environment, the U.S. pursuit of missile defense and Europe's construction of European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) have the potential to complicate U.S.-European security cooperation. However, rather than serving as wedges between the United States and Europe, both of these can help construct a better security relationship.

Europeans apparently do not approve of the seeming U.S. emphasis on providing military equipment and training to Colombia for a counternarcotics effort in what they see as a larger strategic political conflict. At the same time, he reports that Europeans are not only concerned with the counternarcotics violence in Colombia, but also with the economic, security, and political spillover effects for

U.S. strategy in the Balkans and the Army's role there is examined. The author recommends continued U.S. involvement, consideration of a long-term American military presence in the region, and some significant changes in role of the U.S. Army.